This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Defining Projects

Before you set up your first project in Basecamp, you need to define the parameters of this project. If you're an experienced project manager and are just new to Basecamp, you probably already have a very clear idea about how to structure your projects.

But if you're new to project management, it might take a bit more effort to divide the work you need to accomplish into manageable projects. As you learned in Lesson 1, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

For example, if you run a service business, you could set up your clients as companies and create a new Basecamp project for each project you handle for each company. This works well if your projects are large, such as creating a website or planning a wedding. But if you work on many smaller projects for the same client, you could also create separate milestones and to-do lists for each and manage them under one project. This is particularly useful if your account plan limits your number of active projects, and you usually have many small projects at the same time.

Determining the best way to manage your projects is both art and science. Before you start, it's worthwhile to carefully consider the way your business operates, whether you have to follow any specific corporate guidelines in the way your group manages projects, the size and frequency of your projects, and the number of people involved in each project.

Fortunately, though, Basecamp is very flexible. If you don't like the way you initially set up your projects, you can change them.

CAUTION:

Only Account Owners and Administrators Can Create Projects

In Basecamp, only account owners and administrators have permission to create projects. Regular users can't perform most of the tasks described in this lesson.